This blog is dedicated to Ana (aka anablu), who was my first friend on the site and helped me come out of my shell.

Okay, I would have posted this blog on Ana's birthday (which is a week from today, November 15), but I'll be in New South Wales (Australia), 300 k's from Sydney, with no internet access or mobile phone reception (this will actually happen tomorrow afternoon/evening, which means I'm going to be MIA from tv.com for over a week )

Seeing as I won't be around, I decided I'd post this blog early (and hopefully be the 1st one to help celebrate Ana's birthday )

This birthday is also extra special as Ana will be 21! (and I know she's been waiting all year for it to arrive )

So let's get this party started!

Hmm, what to get Ana for her 21st...

My internet is being a bit temperamental and isn't letting me make a proper birthday blog, so I hope you don't mind Ana, if I come back and finish it off when I get back

Love Penny

Okay, I told mscraftee that I'd wait a bit to blog about my research, because I'm going on a field trip for a week from the 9th of November, and I was going to wait till I got back, cause hopefully I'll find my insects while I'm away. Funny, how a simple little email can change your reasoning.

Anyway, there I was, checking my uni email account and noticed an email from the Australian Geographic Society. A few months ago, when I first started Honours, I did put in an application to the Australian Geographic Society about receiving sponsorship for my project. Because I hadn't heard for months, I began to think my application hadn't been successful.

I was a little reluctant to open the email at first, as I was expecting it to say that my application hadn't been successful (you know, expect the worst, hope for the best). So I was pleasantly surprised when I did open the email and it told me that I had been successful! It wasn't for the amount I had originally asked for (because that amount was a little ambitious), but nonetheless, it is enough that it should cover my DNA sequencing expenses (as long as I don't find too many of my bugs on the field trip).

I will be sent a sponsorship contract that I'll have to sign, and I did promise in my application to name one of my species after the society (lucky it looks like Apiomorpha minor is in fact multiple species, at least four, possibly 6 or even more.)

I'm quite excited about receiving my first sponsorship, as I'll be able to put it on my CV, and hopefully it'll help me move onto bigger and better things (like research on cetaceans), although I have grown quite fond of my scale insects, I must admit.

Happy Halloween to everyone, though it's already November in Australia!

Hope you all have a great weekend.

I apologise for the delay in posting this meeting. I wanted to keep my 5 changes up for a few days. Anyway, let's begin!

6th October 2008

"appreciating the structural differences that set us apart from the males of the species"

-mscraftee

Welcome to the club's 7th meeting. The meeting will also be posted in the Prison Break forum (Prison Break reminds me of an episode of Dumbest Criminals)

Business from previous meeting

Thanks mscraftee for seconding

I couldn't decide this time, so I decided we would just have two Mans' of the Month

September Man of the Month x 2

First up ... seeing as Nats nominated first ... Tom Welling

And next we have our second man of the month... Jensen Ackles

Nominations

We had three nominations this time around.

naughtynats nominated James Lafferty

PunkNerd5 nominated Gareth David-Lloyd

anablu nominated Robert Pattinson

To honour anablu for doing her first nomination ever the Man of the Month for October will be Robert Pattinson (thank you both naughtynats and PunkNerd5, you're welcome to nominate again )

Can I have some seconders please

General Business

I have to confess, I have not read the Twilight books yet (I promise it's on my to do list, I recently bought Twilight, so I will get around to reading it ). Robert Pattinson was cast as Edward in the Twilight movie (unfortunately, it hasn't been as hyped-up about in Australia as it has in other countries ) However, I know him best as Cedric Diggory from the Harry Potter movies (Though the books are so much better than the movies! )

Anyway, I give you our October Man of the Month

October Man of the Month

New Members

I'd like to welcome two new members, PunkNerd5 (Rach) and wintrbehaviour (Jodie). Welcome both Hope you enjoy yourselves

Official members

anablu

anbis82

ma_liky

mscraftee

murf1121147

Brittanym1411

tursiopsseries

SassyMax

naughtynats

aleapoffaith

PunkNerd5

winterbehaviour

All new members are welcome to join

Unoffical "Man of the Month" Members

May: Wentworth Miller

June: Johnny Depp

July: Amaury Nolasco

August: Milo Ventimiglia

September: Tom Welling and Jensen Ackles

October: Robert Pattinson

Nominations are welcome for the November Man of the Month

P.S It appears that we can PM each other from tv.com again I successfully PM'd naughtynats from the site

Okay, I probably could have had a top 10 or top 20 list, but these are my top 5

1. Being able to PM anyone from the site instead of having to use a different site to contact my friends. I know this is probably a bug, but I thought it would have been fixed by now.

2. Changing the number of tracked blogs from 4 to at least 10, and returning the number of comments that have been posted on the blogs, and how many of those comments I haven't read.

3. The white background. Not good when you have eyes like mine that are already dodgy.

4. Returning the icons to the profiles. I was trying to build them up!

5. Being able to read past the current 20 comments on everyone's blogs. Once again, probably a bug, but I expected it would have been taken care of.

Okay, I could have gone on, and I agree with many of the other changes people hae suggested.